SNP’s hate crime bill poses ‘grave threat’ to the freedom of the press and risks ‘society of fear’ – Telegraph.co.uk

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The Scottish Greens, while supporting the intention of the bill, are also understood to have concerns over unintended consequences while Scottish Labour expressed reservations . James Kelly, the Scottish Labour MSP, said: Even the terminology within these proposals is concerning, especially around the use of 'insulting' which is subjective and could cause serious legal confusion.

Amanda Millar, President of the Law Society of Scotland, said she backed the Scottish Governments stated aims of the legislation, which include consolidating existing legislation and clamping down on genuine hate crimes.

However, she added: We have significant reservations regarding a number of the Bills provisions and the lack of clarity, which could in effect lead to restrictions in freedom of expression, one of the foundations of a democratic society. We have real concerns that certain behaviour, views expressed or even an actors performance, which might well be deemed insulting or offensive, could result in a criminal conviction under the terms of the Bill as currently drafted.

The Holyrood committee will be able to amend the Bill before it progresses and is expected to take extensive evidence on the provisions. The SNP would not be able to force it through without the backing of another party.

A spokesman for the Scottish Government said: As Lord Bracadale made clear in his independent review of this area of law, the new stirring up hatred offences will not stifle legitimate views from being offered or seriously hinder robust debate.

The Bill continues to allow people to express controversial, challenging or offensive views, as long as this is not done in a threatening or abusive way that is intended or likely to stir up hatred.

The Bill ensures stirring up of hatred offences do not unduly inhibit freedom of expression protections set out in the European Convention on Human Rights.

The Bill actually includes provisions on freedom of expression to ensure the prohibition on stirring up hatred will not unduly restrict peoples right to express their faith, or to criticise religious beliefs or practices or sexual practices.

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SNP's hate crime bill poses 'grave threat' to the freedom of the press and risks 'society of fear' - Telegraph.co.uk

Letter to the Editor: Overreaching laws are taking away our freedom – – New Kent – Charles City Chronicle

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By Community Member | July 22, 2020 5:54 pm

Did you see where Virginias Legislators submitted 3,900 bills this year? Approximately 1,289 of them cleared both houses and were approved by Governor Ralph Northam. If you that is extreme, just think how many laws have been approved over the years that were written to control our lives.

There are a total of 50 states and the federal government making laws, ruling over our very lives everyday and restricting our freedom. I bet from the moment we rise from our beds everyday that we could be charged for a dozen unknown violations before we retire for the day.

Arent you happy that we have elected politicians that are so eager to protect us from ourselves? I get so excited every time our legislators gather to write more regulations to protect us. It gives me great peace of mind that we have such thoughtful politicians. Doesnt it feel the same for you too? Ha!

I dont know about any of you, but I think these overprotective politicians would serve us better if they would get rid of some of these overreaching laws and give us freedom of choice and liberty granted under the Constitution. They took an oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution. Oh! And to serve the people.

Slowly, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is being taken from us and replaced for a more socialistic, dictatorial government. We are heading for serfdom to our government.

Be afraid my fellow citizens. Be very afraid.

Robert WhittakerProvidence Forge

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Letter to the Editor: Overreaching laws are taking away our freedom - - New Kent - Charles City Chronicle

Joe Rogan is leaving Los Angeles and moving to Texas because there’s more freedom there – TheBlaze

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Joe Rogan, host of one of the most popular podcasts on the planet, said that he decided to move from Los Angeles, California, to Texas because he wanted "a little bit more freedom."

Rogen explained further the decisions behind his move during his podcast conversation with guest Joe De Sena, the CEO and founder of Spartan and the Death Race.

"I'm outta here," said Rogan when De Sana asked him about moving. "I'm gonna go to Texas."

"I just want to go somewhere in the center of the country, somewhere it's easier to travel to both places, and somewhere where you have a little bit more freedom," he explained.

"Also I think that um, where we live right here in Los Angeles is overcrowded. And I think, most of the time that's not a problem. But I think it's exposing the fact that it's a real issue, when you look at the number of people that uh, are catching COVID because of this overpopulation issue," Rogan continued.

"When you look at the traffic, when you look at the economic despair, when you look at the homelessness problem that's accelerated radically over the last six, seven, ten years, I think there's too many people here," he added.

"I think it's not tenable, I don't think that it's manageable. And every mayor does a s**t job of doing it because I don't think anybody could do a great job of it. I think there's certain things you're gonna have to deal with when you have a population of whatever the f**k L.A. is, it's like twenty million plus people," Rogan said.

"It's just too many people," replied De Sena.

"It's too many people," Rogan agreed.

The UFC host and former "Fear Factor" host has hinted previously that he was considering such a move. In May he cited the coronavirus lockdown restrictions imposed by the Democratic leadership as the main reason for his inclination to move to Texas.

"If California continues to be this restrictive, I don't know if this is a good place to live," said Rogan. "I might jet. I'm not kidding. I'm not kidding, this is silly. I don't need to be here."

According to a report in 2019, nearly 700,000 Californians moved from the Democrat-controlled state in 2018, with more than 86,000 resettling in Texas. Despite those moving out, California's population grew to 40 million in 2018.

Joe Rogan is Leaving LA for Texaswww.youtube.com

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Joe Rogan is leaving Los Angeles and moving to Texas because there's more freedom there - TheBlaze

The freedom to speak and criticize – Yellowhammer News – Yellowhammer News

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Jim Bob Rutlin has come home at last.

Rutlin is one of the first residents of Union Village, an innovative community in Talladega for low-income blind, deaf and deaf-blind individuals.

It gives me a sense of independence, said Rutlin, a blind part-time Braille transcriber at the library at theAlabama School for the Deaf. It says were grown, we pay taxes and we can have a place of our own. This is home for good, and I thank God for that every night.

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ThePresbyterian Home for Children (PHFC)is partnering with theAlabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind(AIDB) and two Birmingham-based foundations to expand the village, which features affordable, safe, secure and accessible housing for people who are blind, deaf and deaf-blind.

Since 2017, PHFC has owned and operated the village on part of its 80-acre Talladega campus for AIDB consumers. The rental income from the houses goes back to help supportPHFCs programsfor homeless children, at-risk teens and young adults, and families in crisis from across Alabama and the Southeast.

Meanwhile, AIDB provides the communitys residents with services including job assistance, transportation, employment opportunities and on-site medical care.

Union Village is an example of how organizations working together can do something extraordinary, PHFC President and CEO Doug Marshall said. There are very few, if any, communities like this in the country. Now more than ever there is a need for safe, secure and affordable housing for low-income men and women who are deaf, blind or deaf-blind. And income from the rentals will help to offset a portion of PHFCs operating costs to serve children, which is and will always be its core ministry.

Alabama nonprofits unite to create Union Village for deaf and blind residents from Alabama NewsCenter on Vimeo.

Now, theDaniel Foundation of Alabamaand theIndependent Presbyterian Church (IPC) Foundationare stepping in to lend a hand and help the village grow. They are donating funds to PHFC to build two additional houses.

We are excited to partner with these organizations in support of Union Village, said Maria Kennedy, Daniel Foundation executive director. Our mission focuses on improving quality of life and meeting basic needs. Its heartwarming for us to know that we are part of an effort to offer houses that are affordable and designed to meet the specific needs of blind, deaf and deaf-blind people. Its a win-win for all four organizations.

IPC Foundation Executive Director Denise Moore said her organization is proud to help these residents step out on their own.

The IPC Foundation is committed to providing people with hope and the tools to lead full, happy lives through education, medical assistance and safe housing, she said. We have a long history of supporting the work of the Presbyterian Home for Children and Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind. We are honored to partner with them again to help provide safe, affordable housing and necessary services for the people at Union Village.

Beth Adams added that the IPC Foundation is excited about this project.

We are thrilled to be a part of this much-needed program to meet the needs of our blind, deaf and deaf-blind neighbors in Alabama, said Adams, president of the IPC Foundation board. The foundation continues to seek partnerships with nonprofits that work to make a critical difference in the lives of Alabamians.

The all-electric village is a three-phase project, Marshall said. The first phase has been completed and includes five large cottages with 28 residents. Plans are to add 42 tiny duplex-style, accessible homes during the second and third phases.

The first two 475-square-foot houses were built this past fall, one of which is Rutlins home. The second two houses are under construction and set to be completed in September.

The houses are fully compliant with theAmericans with Disabilities Act, Marshall said. They feature zero-step entry into the house, minimal thresholds, 9-foot ceilings and strategic placement of lighting. They are also very energy efficient, which will help lower power bills.

Shaded by large oak and pecan trees, the community will eventually include walkways, gardens and picnic areas, making it easy for residents to meet and enjoy the outdoors.

Tamara Kidd, social worker and AIDB Support Housing Program supervisor, said she is thrilled to see this village take shape. A recent survey conducted by theAIDB Regional Centersshowed that a significant percentage of AIDBs consumers were interested in living in this type of community.

For years, weve wanted to have safe, affordable housing for our consumers, said Kidd, who has worked at AIDB for 16 years. Finally having a safe community that is affordable and accessible within the city limits is a dream come true for our residents and for AIDB. Safety is the No. 1 priority for our consumers, and the Presbyterian Home for Children has been a blessing to provide that for them.

Marshall said he is looking forward to the continued expansion of the village.

Its pretty amazing that the Lord has put these two very different institutions PHFC and AIDB side by side, and now were working with two more nonprofits the Daniel Foundation and IPC Foundation on something so wonderful, he said. This village gives these residents a chance to be independent and all they can be. Together, were changing lives.

(Courtesy of Alabama NewsCenter)

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When CIA, US Army Conducted Mosquito Research in India – NewsClick

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Representational image. | Image Courtesy: Wikipedia

As the world reels under the Covid-19 pandemic, a large number of conspiracy theories have emerged across countries about how it spreads. From eating bats and secret bio-warfare research in a lab in Wuhan to the testing of 5G cellular networks and whatnot, such theories need just the right ingredients to take offand Covid-19 has become a breeding ground for them. Most of these so-called theories have now been scientifically debunked. However, there are cases where such things have actually occurred.

Strange as it may sound, in India, we have had a series of experiments carried out in the 1970s on issues that are of concern to the health of the general population. And these are not conspiracy theories by a long shot. The experiments included live research on new breeds of mosquitoes in the context of germ warfare, on import of worm-infested hop plants from Australia (not found in India then) that could severely damage crops and plants here and on migration of certain virus-carrying birds in the North-east.

The scientific community and others, including parliamentarians, had expressed serious concern over these projects, which were being carried out in India in a hush-hush manner as part of germ warfare experiments by other countries which themselves prohibit such tests.

Even more intriguing is that the experiments on mosquitoes and bird migration were funded and coordinated by the United States Army, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), among several other American organisations, and carried out in association with some Indian institutions under the auspices of the World Health Organisation (WHO).

When such research projects, which were being conducted in late 1960s and early seventies in parts of Delhi, its adjoining areas, Gujarat and Rajasthan, were exposed in the media by a qualified nuclear scientist-turned-journalist working with the Press Trust of India (PTI), the entire nation was taken aback. One of his news items, appearing on July 29, 1974 and printed in newspapers across the country, was on a United States agencies-funded research project carried out by a special unit created jointly by the WHO and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) called the Genetic Control of Mosquitoes Unit (GCMU).

Amidst a national uproar, Parliament took note of it and held a discussion on the matter on 30 July 1974. Soon, a parliamentary committee investigated the reports by PTIs special correspondent for science, Dr KS Jayaraman, and after interviewing him and others and conducting a series of deliberations, vindicated his findings.

Backed fully by the top brass of PTI, including then editor-in-chief C Raghavan, Jayaraman spent over 15 months investigating the entire gamut of the GCMU project as well as other such projects that were being executed in India with the support of United States agencies, including the Migratory Animal Pathological Service (MAPS) which in simpler language is the biological warfare research division of the United States Army, as Jayaraman wrote in his story.

His story went on to say: Some members of the scientific community ask whether the hush-hush atmosphere and the nature of data collected in various projects of doubtful relevance to India suggest that India is being used as a guinea pig or testing ground for chemicals or methods not permitted in sponsoring countries or even for some covert operations.

It said the GCMU had come under public gaze when it was revealed that it was polluting village wells with chemicals suspected to be cancer-causing and prohibited in the United States. Since then, secrecy has become tighter on the entire project. Jayaraman raised several questions, such as why the ICMR is backing the WHO study of Aedes aegypti [the mosquito that carries Yellow Fever] when GCMUs priorities ought to be Anopheles stephensi [the mosquito which is a vector of malaria] and Culex fatigans [the filarin carrier]. It meant that the study was focussed on Yellow Fever mosquitoes instead of the ones carrying the germs of malaria, a disease which was highly prevalent in India those days.

Following this and other stories, Dr Subramanian Swamy, who was then a Jan Sangh Member of Parliament, had said in the Rajya Sabha, The US army had given Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) a grant to study bird migration in north-eastern India. In his stories, Jayaraman confirmed that the WHO had shared the study results with MAPS of the US Army. The research work for the WHO-BNHS project was carried out in the North Eastern Frontier Agency (NEFA, now Arunachal Pradesh).

The 167th report of the Parliaments Public Accounts Committee said Jayaraman had brought out a very useful report in July 1974 on serious concern in sections of the scientific community in India at some research projects being carried out in the country by or under the auspices of the WHO under conditions of total secrecy. The report which appeared in Motherland of 29 July 1974 under the caption WHO works for US secret research in India? has also done a very great service.

Not only that, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which probed the PTI news item, directed the government to take immediate corrective measures. The then PAC Chairman, Jyotirmoy Basu, a veteran CPI-M leader and trade unionist, also wrote to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, saying: [This research project was] primarily meant for the three things mentioned below:

(1) To carry on certain experiments in India which are harmful to the population and which are not allowed to be done in their own country i.e. USA.

(2) They are experimenting and keeping things in readiness in case the USA government ever wanted to wage a chemical, bacteriological or virus warfare against this country.

(3) To prepare themselves to wage a chemical, bacteriological or virus warfare against another country keeping India as base.

Out of these experiments, all the results and findings will be the property of US government. To make sure that this [research project] does not progress any more, I am writing this because I am very apprehensive of this programme and I am doing in the best interests of my country and the people. I earnestly suggest that a thorough probe should be done by the most competent Intelligence Agency at your command.

Based on the news item and after questioning Jayaraman and PTIs editor-in-chief Raghavan, the PAC itself wrote the following as a background to its 167th report: A number of medical and agricultural research projects and experiments have been launched in India and are being carried out in the country by or under the auspices of international and foreign organisations such as the World Health Organisation, United States Department of Agriculture, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Smithsonian Institute, Migratory Animal Pathological Survey (MAPS) of the US Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, United States Department of Defence, John Hopkins University, etc.

For instance, a project for the genetic control of mosquitoes has been established in India in collaboration with the World Health Organisation. A collaboration for a study of bird migration had been entered into between the Bombay Natural History Society and the Migratory Animal Pathological Survey. Use of the Ultra Low Volume spray technique for urban malaria control is also being tried out with the assistance of the World Health Organisation. The Rockefeller Foundation has been associated with virus research with the Bombay Natural History Society and the Virus Research Centre in Poona and the Smithsonian Institute with bird migratory studies. The United States Department of Agriculture has been collaborating on a microbial pesticide project in the Pantnagar Agricultural University. The John Hopkins University had also been collaborating with Indian institutions on various research projects.

The PAC had dealt with another PTI report of July 1974 by Jayaraman and made a series of recommendations regarding the import of agricultural items, leading to changes in the laws. The story dealt with the import of worm-infested hop plants from Australia by a major liquor brewery by flouting rules. These worms, a kind of nematode, had never been recorded on Indian soil before. The report said this worm was earlier accidentally introduced and had wrecked the potato crop in the Nilgiris and has now started playing havoc in other areas of Tamil Nadu. Following the nationwide publication of this news item, the PAC deliberated on this matter too and gave several recommendations, many of which were accepted by the government of the day.

The series of stories authored by Jayaraman throughout his over three decades in PTI continued to raise hackles as most of them dealt with threats to the health of the people in general and other scientific issues that are of public and national security interest. Though he remained anonymous to the general public being a news agency journalist, Jayaraman is undoubtedly a doyen of Indian science journalism.

The special correspondent who later became PTIs first science editor was also associated with top-notch global science journals such as Nature. Born in 1936, Jayaraman graduated in Madras and landed up as a scientific assistant at the Atomic Energy Establishment (now Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in Mumbai) in 1958. At AEE, he spent five years in the research group engaged in building the Apsara Reactor (now decommissioned) under the guidance of pioneers like Raja Ramanna and PK Iyengar. Thereafter, he went to the United States, joined the University of Maryland and finished his PhD in 1968. For his post-doc, he worked at Potsdam University, New York, and then at University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada. He returned to India in 1972 and joined as a pool officer at the Directorate of Naval Science and Technology. Later, he joined the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) as a Class-I officer.

But Jayaramans mind was set on journalism, for which he had already equipped himself with a post-graduate degree in journalism from the famed Medill School of Journalism in the United States. He joined PTI in 1973, where he was known as Doc or Dr J, says a recent book, Raising Hackles: Celebrating the Life of Science Journalist Dr KS Jayaraman. The book, a collection of articles on Jayaraman by the science journalists he mentored, has been brought out by Dinesh C Sharma, a former PTI hand who is currently a Jawaharlal Nehru Fellow.

The writer was deputy executive editor of Press Trust of India. The views are personal.

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When CIA, US Army Conducted Mosquito Research in India - NewsClick

Politically incorrect as correct: Sam Houston and Martin L. King Jr. – Huntsville Item

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The lives of Martin Luther King Jr and Sam Houston provide a model for bringing some sense of unity out of the divisiveness which characterizes political correctness in our time. Fundamental to that divisiveness is the concept of cultural determinism which holds that the sub culture into which one is drawn at a formative age becomes the pivotal and ultimate determiner of ones values or standards of judgement. Sub cultures are essentially genetically based, tied to race, which augments the separateness.

Reinforcing divisiveness is the concept is cultural appropriation. This is especially apparent in terms of the black versus the white race. The tendency here is to label as politically incorrect or racist, any action by a member of the white race centered on displaying or behaving in a manner associated with black culture while divorced from a proper context reflecting black culture.

Stemming from these divisive premises, the greatest sin in pluralism lies in surrender to cultural assimilation, the merging of a sub culture into the cultural mainstream thereby diminishing the sub cultures uniqueness. Tempering the presumed ill effects of cultural assimilation is acculturation. While bringing the representative of a sub culture into the mainstream, acculturation allows for retention of a basic obeisance to ones native sub culture.

It is against the background of acculturation so defined that Martin Luther King Jr and Sam Houston become models of cultural integration in an era under captivity to pluralist political correctness. Each of these men expressed the embrace of the dominant assimilated US culture as the goal of the society generally while continuing to pay respect to a sub culture with which they identified. Witness Sam Houstons pivotal role in the mainstream while also wearing apparel reflective of the Native American subculture, a habit finding socio political legitimacy in his having spent quality time with Native Americans.

Reflecting aspects of acculturation then, both King and Houston meet the test of political correctness. However, in two significant ways they both challenge political correctness. One of these ways lay in their ultimate allegiance to the Transcendent God of the Bible. This places them in the context of seeing each individual as significant, apart from and regardless of ones sub cultural and biological roots.

This transformational act of political incorrectness marks the path to releasing the individual from the narrow -based group think of cultural determinism to embrace identity with the Biblically-based roots of the countrys political and social institutions common to all.

Reinforcing commonality, both Sam Houston and Martin Luther King Jr were nationalists. In his I have a Dream Speech, King called for a coming together of heirs of slaves and slave masters to join in singing the refrains of America: My Country tis of thee. Then there was Sam Houston who, as governor of Texas, refused to sign Texas into the Confederacy due to his loyalty to the nation as a whole.

Featuring a broad-based and Christian-centered nationalism while yet respecting sub cultural roots, Sam Houston and Martin Luther King Jr. are models for a unity of substance even within a pluralist framework. Sam Houston, hero of San Jacinto and Martin Luther King Jr, the Great Dreamer, are worthy of emulation in a revitalized American History.

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Politically incorrect as correct: Sam Houston and Martin L. King Jr. - Huntsville Item

What Is It That People Are Afraid To Say These Days? Mother Jones – Mother Jones

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For indispensable reporting on the coronavirus crisis and more, subscribe to Mother Jones' newsletters.

Heres the latest on the brutal muzzling of free speech in America:

A new Cato Institute/YouGov national survey of 2,000 Americans finds that 62% of Americans say the political climate these days prevents them from saying things they believe because others might find them offensive. This is up from 2017 when 58% agreed with this statement.

Thats an increase of . . . 4 percent! Clearly George Floyd and the forces of political correctness have wreaked havoc on American culture.

On a more serious note, polls like this would be a lot more useful if they tried to dive into what people are afraid to say. If its something like Black people are lazy then Id say the increase to 62 percent means that Americans are increasingly wary of expressing racist ideas in public, and thats a good thing. On the other hand, if its something like Class-based affirmative action is a good idea then we might have a real problem. So which is it?

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What Is It That People Are Afraid To Say These Days? Mother Jones - Mother Jones

Letter: The destruction of democracy cannot be tolerated – Northwest Herald

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During the past several weeks numerous protests have occurred across the country. Most of these protests have been peaceful and meaningful, but violence including rioting, burning, and looting were dominant early on. Part of the problem was the absence of any authoritative rule by officials to protect its citizens and their property from this type of behavior.

The fiasco in Seattle has finally come to an end as a section of the city was relinquished to protestors as a result of the do-nothing attitude of the Mayor of Seattle and Governor of Washington. The only things accomplished, besides a couple of murders, were the humiliation of Seattle and a lack of faith in the police department by officials.

Protesting has since moved on to the defacing of monuments, destruction of statues including those of past presidents and opposed to slavery, and the burning of the flag. One needs to question if this is an attempt by some to advance a new socio-economic format, void of history, which suits their idealistic values or simply idiots who lack knowledge of the background and historical significance of the statues they are indiscriminately destroying.

History belongs to us all. We study and learn from history, we do not bury it.

2020 is the 75th Anniversary of Allied victory in WW II. We need to honor and remember those who were a part of this war and the memory of those who gave their lives to preserve the freedoms of democracy.

Protesting is one of those freedoms, the abuse of our country is not.

WW II had much to do with hate. Racist and hate are words used often in today's society. They are strong words. When used, little thought is given to their meaning and to whom or what they are directed at. Maybe someday respect and understanding can replace them.

Our country is not perfect, but it is the best there is. Our country will survive along with its freedoms for all, but the distraction of political correctness, the desecration of history, and the destruction of democracy cannot be tolerated.

Chuck McKee

Marengo

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Letter: The destruction of democracy cannot be tolerated - Northwest Herald

Explaining the futility of pre-election polls – The Jerusalem Post

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Months before elections for a new government, the pollsters get busy making their predictions. This is particularly noticeable when looking at the minefield of American politics. Thats more a game than information on which the partys campaign managers can base their strategy.

I strongly believe that in the United States, with its diverse cultures and ethnic origins, a so-called representative sample of 1,000 people cannot be reflective of the whole nation. Furthermore, unlike with face-to-face questioning, by choosing various socioeconomic areas, todays hit-and-miss phone polls do not guarantee a fair cross-section. Thats why the 2016 presidential election produced a result that was different from the cut-and-dried expectation.

Not only does the interviewer not know if he really speaks with a voter, but unlike in a face-to-face encounter, he also has no way to judge the honesty of the reply. So I set no store by any polls, except the one on Election Day. It is known that when standing in the booth, many people revert to their traditional view, which is different from their more recent intention.

The voting is also influenced by the weather and drastic political developments. Lastly, it is a means by politically motivated pollsters to raise your concern that your chosen candidate might lose, and therefore encourage you to vote. But it is the floating voter who decides the election. All the pundits and political commentators, yours truly included, make hit-and-miss predictions. The moral of this story is: Dont raise your blood pressure, because you can only do your duty and que sera sera.

Now a brief word about todays America.

For Americans, however, it is worth getting excited about the left-wing extremists who infiltrate and then take over every legitimate protest movement. The outrage over the killing of George Floyd was the trigger to adopt the slogan Black Lives Matter for their unconstitutional activities.

Of course black lives matter, just differently expressed, it is nothing new. Generations have fought for it. How else was slavery abolished and segregation made illegal? Its protagonists were peaceful people.

The extremist elements of the new Left in America are searching in ever wider circles to change the fabric of society. Now they found that the name Redskins of the Washington NFL team no longer fits their perception of political correctness and racial justice.

So, as a result of protests and mounting pressure from its main sponsor, FedEx, which holds the naming rights of their stadium. And despite the team owners statements some years ago that they would never change the name, they have now decided to drop the Redskins name and logo. It is all part of the far-reaching tentacles of the George Floyd revolution.

A statement issued by The National Congress of American Indians read: We commend the Washington NFL team for eliminating a brand that disrespected, demeaned, and stereotyped all native people. There are however many native-American voices who are not offended by the name.

Now that statues of Christopher Columbus and George Washington have been toppled, will the capital city of the United States also be renamed so that soon the history of the United States will be unrecognizable? And is the Empire State Building next?

Does that name not conjure up memories of the colonies? The elections in November will decide the future of that great country. Will it remain the leader of the free world or become a slave to a new radical socialism, a society where the mob rules and where there is no protection for the law-abiding citizen.

The writer is the host of Walters World on Israel National Radio Arutz 7, and The Walter Bingham File on Israel Newstalk Radio, both of which are broadcast in English.

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Explaining the futility of pre-election polls - The Jerusalem Post

The Spoils of Colonial Oppression – Progressive.org

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On June 7, in the English city of Bristol, protesters removed a statue of the local slave trader Edward Colston. In the days that followed, the city became the center of a debate on the ethics of public objects, as local governments up and down the country came under pressure to follow suit and renounce Britains colonial history.

While statues of slave traders might constitute the most obvious symbols of Britains imperial legacy, what about the objects obtained through colonial oppression?

Rightwing factions were eager to decry the move as political correctness gone mad. But far from signaling the end point of our collective awakening to the crimes of colonialism, it seems to be just the beginning.

Slowly but surely, many more people are becoming aware of the deeply depraved foundations on which many other artifacts and indeed, entire organizations, were founded. The pressure on museums, galleries, and public institutionsnot just in the United Kingdom, but in France, the United States, and throughout the worldhas never been so great.

But while statues of slave traders might constitute the most obvious and egregious symbols of Britains imperial legacy, what about the objects obtained through colonial oppression?

There are the famous cases of the Maqdala treasures (seized from Ethiopia in 1868) held at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the Parthenon Marbles (shipped from Athens in 1803) at the British Museum. But they are just the tip of the iceberg.

And though not all artifacts found in British institutionsor, say, the Louvre in Pariswere obtained from looting, the majority were nevertheless swindled under less extreme forms of violence, such as coercion or deeply unequal trade agreements.

The downfall of the Colston statue has thrown a spotlight on Britains historical misdeeds and revived public interest in the question of restitution.

Janet Suzman, chair of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles, is determined to ride the momentum. We need to ask the British Museum, she declared in a statement during a silent protest at the British Museum on June 20, whether they would havethe decency to provide visitors with the full story: How did these incomparable pieces of sculpture, torn from the greatest building in the western world, get to sitout of contextin the grey grandeur of Room 18?

This question raises several key points: One is the fundamental injustice of a ruling culture having looted, and continuing to profit from, the relics of another sovereign culture. But Suzman has also highlighted how museums, in a less apparent but far more insidious way, will often present items so that they appear without any wider historical context.

Just as colonial powers reduced whole communities and cultures to mere subjects, some museums are often guilty of flattening their collections into a cabinet of curiosities.

In some sense, just as colonial powers reduced whole communities and cultures to mere subjects, some museums are often guilty of flattening their collections into a cabinet of curiosities.

Tristram Hunt, a former Labour Party politician now serving director of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, has argued that museum collections are first and foremost about education. But museums do not exist as neutral entities simply showcasing objects of historic significance. They are in and of themselves deeply political objects.

From their very conception, to their programming and hiring policies, museums serve to entrench and preserve a very specific set of values and beliefs. In the case of some of the most well-known museums, that belief was firmly rooted in a commitment to the spectacle of imperial accomplishmentand today, they remain overwhelmingly staffed by an army of affluent white people.

It is not just a question, then, of whether museums should remove or return certain objects, but whether the institution as we know it needs to change. Removing symbols of the slave trade might go someway to addressing the biases of history, but this effort will not be completed until we address the underlying assumptions of the four walls in which they are housed.

One of the main contentions made against restitution is the difficulty of tracing the lineage of a given artifact to one community or moment in time. Several artifacts looted through colonialism belong to territories that no longer exist, such as Turkeys claim on the plundered goods of the Ottoman Empire.

Denying the necessity of returning these objects on the grounds of complexity is an excuse. Restitution is achieved through careful research and consideration of the diplomatic benefits taken on a case by case basis.

There can be no blanket approach. Every object must be given the same specificity of care and nuanced treatment that we would any other matter of diplomatic consideration and international relations. As cultural institutions continue to wring their hands over how to respond to the recent wave of Black Lives Matter protesters, they would do well to start here.

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The Spoils of Colonial Oppression - Progressive.org

The Sharply Pointed ‘Art of Pauline Kael’ – Shepherd Express

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Nowadays, no writer in any field exercises the influence Pauline Kael wielded as a film critic. Hired by the New Yorker in 1967, she was handed a platform at Americas most culturally prestigious publication at the moment when film was about to change. A younger generation of filmmakers was on the rise and along with their generational cohort across the world, they were intent on doing things differently.

Rob Garvers documentary What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael locates her in the smart wing of a cultural ferment where vigorous debate was encouraged, hurt feelings be damned. And lets be clear: Kael could be hurtful as well as thoughtful and many of her remarks had a cruel edge. By the time political correctness became widely fashionable, Kael was semi-retired, partly from the shaking hands of Parkinsons and partly because the revolution ended in defeat. After the 1970s, Hollywoods second golden age, big studio American films were largely rotten in conception, imaginatively impoverished, falling far short of Kaels demanding standards.

During those boom years of Mean Streets, The Godfather and Nashville, Kaels prose had the ability to make readers see movies in new ways. They were arguments and many critics, fans and filmmakers argued back. David Lean was devastated by her contempt and Ridley Scott was outraged by her review of Blade Runner. Kael didnt get Blade Runner when it was released 1982. Maybe she was already losing touch.

But during the 70s, many critics across the U.S. read Kael like a map, following her direction in their own quests for meaning. According to What She Said, Kael often worked the phone, calling critics in her thrall and convincing them to see it her way. She was feared in the industry. And inspiring to aspirants, as one of the documentarys interviewees, Quentin Tarantino, insists.

People dont tend to like a good critic, Kael said in one of the documentarys archival interviews (she made the TV talk show circuit in the 70s). Too many critics are softies, she explained, or star struck. Kael didnt care what the studio publicists thought. They didnt invite her to advance screenings but she went to pictures when they opened, like any member of the public, and sometimes took audience reaction into account.

In an early essay, Kael attacked the auteur theory first developed by French critics in the 50s and popularized in America by the Village Voices Andrew Sarris in the 60s. The theory held that many Hollywood directors were authors of their filmsthat recurring traits and themes, the stamp of their own personalities, were identifiable throughout their oeuvre despite the interference of studios and censors and the collaborative nature of the medium. Ironically (or did she change her mind?), Kael came to champion the great directors of the 70s, drawing attention to their individual films as part of a larger body of work. Robert Altman and David Lynchs career benefitted from her attention. So did Steven Spielberg. Vulgarity is not as destructive to an artist as snobbery she wrote in her review of Fiddler on the Roof (she praised it as the most powerful movie musical ever made). Pretense is what she most despised in cinema. Kael was an early defender of trash movies, holding that gems can sometimes be discerned gleaming in even the rankest garbage bin.

Fearless, highly subjective, sometimes insensitive, Kael was the enemy of self-righteous message peddlers and maudlin tearjerkers, of academics whose turgid theorizing obliterated the pleasures of moviegoing. Although she cultivated followers, Kael insisted that a critics job is to stimulate thinking and encourage you to develop your own opinions.

To read more 'I Hate Hollywood' blog posts, click here.

To read more articles by David Luhrssen, click here.

David Luhrssen lectured at UWM and the MIAD. He is author of The Vietnam War on Film, Encyclopedia of Classic Rock, and Hammer of the Gods: Thule Society and the Birth of Nazism.

Jul. 24, 2020

10:37 a.m.

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The Sharply Pointed 'Art of Pauline Kael' - Shepherd Express

Carmel High School Rethinks The Legacy Of Its Mascot – 90.3 KAZU

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Carmel High School is reconsidering its mascot in this current reckoning over racial justice. A group of current and former students at Carmel High School wants to change the mascot, a cartoon Catholic friar called Padre. This week, Carmels school board announced it intends to establish a committee to discuss the issue.

Emily Robinson, class of 2011, is one of more than 2,000 alumni and students who signed a petition to change the schools mascot. The Padre reflects the Spanish history of the Carmel Mission, and some say it ignores the violent treatment of Native Americans.

Robinson said the call to change the Padre mascot is part of broader conversation going on around the country about how history is framed.

What are the things that we have held up as icons, as sacred? Are those sacred to everyone or are they glorifying something that shouldnt be glorified? Robinson said.

The mascot has been part of the school for almost 80 years, and not everyone thinks changing it is a good idea. Theres a counter-petition, and many of the nearly 800 people who signed it say changing the Padre would abandon tradition for the sake of political correctness.

To me, theyre taking away history, tradition and basically legacies, said Mike Scardina, a graduate of the class of 1999, who started the counter-petition.

The decision to change the Carmel High School mascot, and potentially pick a new one, is ultimately up to the Carmel Unified School Board of Education. Board President Karl Pallastrini said the district is willing to explore changing the Padre mascot, but the top priority is making sure schools are able to safely reopen amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Its something thats of importance. But clearly getting kids back and teachers back in a safe environment is job one for the district, said Pallastrini.

The Carmel Unified School Boards policy currently does not outline a process for changing a schools mascot. This week, the board announced it is designing that policy and using other districts guidelines as a reference. The next step will be to establish a committee of students, alumni and taxpayers to hear community feedback.

But for recent grad Ella Foster, community discussion isnt enough.

What I would like to see is eventually for it to change, Foster said. I dont think theres another solution really.

The conversation around the Padre mascot has sparked a discussion about Carmels history. Symbols of Spanish influence are visible throughout the city, from the iconic mission to streets named after Father Junipero Serra, a Spanish Catholic priest. Over the past month, some Junipero Serra monuments in California have been pulled down.

Bill Schrier, a social studies teacher at Carmel High, says he plans to use the mascot to ask students deeper questions about community identity.

Asking them to wonder why do you think Carmel High chose the Padre? What does it mean to us now? What might it mean to other people?

Kylie Yeatman, class of 2020, said seeing anti-racism protests and calls to dismantleConfederate statues around the country have inspired her peers to call for change in their own community.

People have realized we should have the freedom to voice our opinion, even if its something thats relatively small. Its not small in our lives, she says.

The Padre mascot has been questioned before. But this is the first time so many people have spoken up. The school board indicated it will look at the issue, but hasnt set a timeline. So Padre will keep his job for now, but no one knows for how long.

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Carmel High School Rethinks The Legacy Of Its Mascot - 90.3 KAZU

Letters to the Editor, July 25, 2020: Fanning the flames – Calgary Sun

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HOT NAME

How long will our beloved hockey team remain the Calgary Flames? How long until the powers of political correctness remember that our team used to be the Atlanta Flames and that the name pays homage to the burning of Atlanta, in 1864 by U.S. Gen. W.T. Sherman during the Civil War? Sherman, by the way, was such a white supremacist, that he refused to allow Blacks to join the army. His intolerance was so intense that he fought with U.S. President Abraham Lincoln over the matter, even after being reminded of the Emancipation Proclamation. But he was a kind man by the standards of his day, and although a self-confessed racist, wanted slavery made more humane. The name that honours Shermans burning of Atlanta was kept by Calgary as it was thought a good name for a city at the heart of the oil and gas industry. It is a good name and with luck, it will avoid a political correctness name change.

ALLEN BRYANT

(Stay tuned.)

THE HORSE ALWAYS WINS

I did a little search. Found a new name for Edmonton football club. Espinosa is defined as a hawthorn that is a tough, wiry, and sharp spiked plant that you dont want to mess with if you dont want to get hurt unless you get Stampedered by a tougher horse! Sounds perfectly logical and fitting to me.

VAL WEBER

(We really need the CFL to return to games on the gridiron not rebranding exercises.)

KEEP OPEN MIND

I have a special interest in the conversation about being required to wear a mask 100% of the time when out in public. I do believe that those who can, should wear one wherever necessary when in public spaces where there is the possibility of contact with strangers. However, there are probably some like myself who have allergies or COPD, that when you have to wear a mask for even a short period of time you feel like you are being suffocated. I always have one with me and I wear it when necessary but my condition prohibits me from standing in any kind of lineup for any period of time. I always carry a handkerchief with me so that I can cover my mouth and nose quickly. If questioned I would gladly explain to anyone the situation but being accused is different. All Im saying is, dont jump to conclusions.

MURRAY MCANDREWS

(You raise some valid points.)

SIR JOHN, EH!

People trying to remove John A. Macdonald from all places in Canada need to give their heads a shake and study history in detail and everything J.A. did. This is especially true for those in B.C. who were successful in getting his statue removed in Victoria. If it wasnt for John A. and his building of the CPR, our neighbours to the west would be preparing to vote in their presidential election this November.

LEN RING

(Our past leaders were hardly perfect. And history likely wont judge us that way, either.)

NO BETTER

Im not sure Alberta is under good leadership anymore. Zero progress is attracting business to our province. Zero progress in helping our health-care system. Now, this is quite embarrassing to me because I voted for Mr. Kenney. I fully understand there has been a small timeline to fix the devastation the NDP caused in only four years but I am seeing zero progress in all problems our province needs to see progress in. The health-care workers deserve whatever they ask for. Our doctors are being disrespected. Without these heroes whats left? Can you show me anything Mr. Kenney has done to help anything? Poor leader of our party I believe more interested in getting himself ahead instead of Albertas citizens.

YANCY JONES

(Pretty harsh view, given what the province has been through with the pandemic and economically.)

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Letters to the Editor, July 25, 2020: Fanning the flames - Calgary Sun

Guest View: We dont need a revolution now – Foster’s Daily Democrat

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Our nation is once again badly divided, and with a critically important national election coming up I hope people will stand back and take a clear eyed look at what is happening. Emotions have reached the boiling point and it seems to me we are looking at a lot of very upset people planning to go out and vote against Donald J. Trump. His opponent doesnt seem to excite many people but a vote against Trump is the point so he'll do just fine. But in fact all those "against" votes will actually be "for" something and we will only come to know exactly what that is after January 2021.

Every president brings his or her party, its core beliefs and leaders, and its governing principles to Washington. I advise people to think very clearly about the Democrats taking control, and what they profess to do once they gain the power they have been lusting after since Hillary Clinton was ignominiously (and legitimately) denied it in 2016.

Its hard to say from their legislative accomplishments in the past three years because they have had few. But they sure have been against Donald Trump since the night he won election and they have attacked and hounded him relentlessly, including heinous charges of potentially treasonous involvement with Russia which (shockingly to all the Democrats and their media collaborators) were proven to be totally baseless. In fact, it is undeniable that the Democrats in Washington have focused on the undoing of Donald Trump to the exclusion of virtually all else, and it's all about power, not effective governance. Every time one of their thrusts comes up empty they generate a couple more, all based on their accusations of racism, collusion and other odious characteristics they see in the man. They have painted with a broader and broader brush. Now all Trump supporters are characterized in the same negative light and even such important historical figures as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson are being condemned for their perceived shortcomings, naturally enough as seen through the prism of the Democrat Party left wing.

To better understand where the Democrats want to take the country please take a close look at their kingmakers, Bernie Sanders, AOC and their supporters. There is no doubt at all about what they plan to do with political power, and even less doubt that Joe Biden and the party leadership have already knuckled under to them. Without the vigorous support of their left wing the Democrats have serious fear of losing the election. So some sort of deal has been made. We are left to connect the dots to determine exactly what that may be.

Its a revolution they want. Full stop. A total makeover of the American way of life complete with onerous regulation, knee jerk opposition to large businesses and sky high taxes to fuel their flights of fancy, including The Green New Deal, Defund the Police and Free Just About Everything. Not to mention smothering political correctness, open borders, sanctuary cities and tolerance of the homeless armies and armed gangs now making many major American cities virtually unlivable.

If you doubt this just look at their many public statements made to date. It's all out there for everyone to see but they are not emphasizing it at all. Instead it is the relentless get rid of Trump message they have been fixated on since the man was elected. And it seems to be working.

I believe what many well meaning Americans will be voting "for" is a commitment to a total makeover of our society and our economy, one that is solely focused on everything perceived by the strident voices on the left to be wrong and not at all concerned or even aware of the drastic impact it will have on all the many things that are right. And they are very intolerant of any conservative voices raised to oppose them. They have taken control of three critical areas in modern American life: the media, education, especially higher education, and Hollywood. This has enabled them to control public consciousness and opinion to a shocking extent, especially among young people, and now they are poised for the payoff.

If you ask me, before the revolution starts, most folks would be very happy if we could first get a little closer to the booming economy, plentiful jobs and rising incomes we enjoyed prior to coronavirus back in 2019. We would be well advised to heed the advice of a Democrat of earlier times, John F Kennedy, who understood the importance of economic prosperity when saying "a rising tide lifts all the boats". That is exactly what we need now. Our economy has been ravaged by this black swan event, millions are jobless and millions more have seen the work of a lifetime crash and burn. And we are on the threshold of a crushing decline in tax revenues at the local, state and federal level, money required to run the country in the most basic sense, not to mention funding the dreams of revolutionaries. But none of this is being fully discussed in the current political climate.

I dont think it takes a genius to understand restoring economic vitality should be job one now. Even those who may want major systemic changes should agree, the means to provide for that will be a necessary precursor to any such thing happening. I would think most people, focused on their daily lives, their work, incomes and family budgets understand it clearly.

If you want to move from the current economic instability into a massive experiment, untested, predicated on idealistic worn out precepts of socialism (if not Marxism), then by all means vote Democrat. But if you want a practical recovery from the economic mess we find ourselves in, please reconsider. If we can get the national economy back in shape, we'll have plenty of time for revolution later on.

Ken McCord of New Castle is a retired small business owner with a keen interest in contemporary affairs. His education is a result of visiting 80-plus countries in a lifetime of world travel.

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Guest View: We dont need a revolution now - Foster's Daily Democrat

Far-right Proud Boys posters popping up in Kamloops – Smithers Interior News

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-Kamloops this Week

Kamloops Mounties are aware of posters in town promoting the hate group Proud Boys Canada and have distributed copies to officers so they are aware, but the local detachment has had no interactions with anyone claiming to be with the group.

RCMP staff Sgt. Martin Van Laer said police received a report on July 12 from someone using the detachments online reporting tool. The person said they came across the poster along a walking trail near 366 Waddington Cres. in Sahali and removed it.

We dont have anything else than this one report so far, Van Laer said.

Kyle Mardon was headed into the Royal Bank of Canada branch in the Columbia Place Shopping Centre on July 11 at about 7:30 a.m. when he noticed a copy of the 8.5-inch-by-11-inch sign on the outside of that building.

The promotional flyer for the Proud Boys asks people to contact them via email and lists their tenets, which include minimal government, maximum freedom, closed border, anti-racial guilt, anti-political correctness, glorifying the entrepreneur and venerating the housewife.

Founded in 2016 by Canadian right-wing activist and Vice Media co-founder Gavin McInnes, the Proud Boys is an all-male, far right group with a history of street violence. Members are to swear off masturbation and declare themselves Western chauvinists who refuse to apologize for creating the modern world. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Youtube have all banned the group from their platforms.

READ MORE: Revelstoke RCMP search for 3 suspects involved in semi-truck crash, evading police

Mardon said he was surprised and disgusted to see the groups poster, adding he didnt think such organizations existed in Kamloops.

Upon seeing it, he took a picture of the sign and ripped it down, but didnt report it to police.

The group may seem innocuous, but their leaders and a large percentage of their members are considered white supremacists he said, noting his wife is of Indian descent and he doesnt want their children to have to face discrimination.

Mardon said he was aware of the groups online presence, but noted this was the first time he had come across a posted flyer. He is concerned the group may be operating in Kamloops.

I do not want to see such groups as the KKK, Antifa or Proud Boys getting a foothold here they are not wanted, Mardon told KTW, noting Canada is a multicultural society that accepts everyone regardless of where they are from or what they believe.

The last thing I want to see is any group becoming violent or racist towards any other group of people, he said.

As he drove away from the bank, Mardon said he noticed another copy of the sign posted on a nearby dry cleaners store and assumes there are others.

Other copies have the signs have been spotted in Kamloops and reported on social media by people who note they, too, have removed the messages.

READ MORE: Mexican consulate wants answers after assault on farmworker by Abbotsford police

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Far-right Proud Boys posters popping up in Kamloops - Smithers Interior News

George Boardman: What’s in a nickname? Plenty in these times of hyper sensitivity – The Union of Grass Valley

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The Washington Redskins football team has decided to scrap its offensive nickname, another victory for the interests of inclusion and social justice currently sweeping the country.

The teams owner, Dan Snyder, has steadfastly resisted the change over the years, and he received recent support from President Donald Trump, who is four-square against political correctness.

But the teams fate was sealed when its biggest corporate sponsor, FedEx, signaled it was ready for a change, and Amazon quit selling Redskins apparel. Nothing talks louder than money in the National Football League.

The Redskins saga had a sketchy history. The nickname was created in 1933 by owner George Preston Marshall, a segregationist who was the last holdout in the NFL when it came to integrating players. He capitulated in 1962 when he was threatened with loss of his stadium.

Washingtons decision continues a new woke trend on the part of the NFL. Commissioner Roger Goodell said the league has been slow to acknowledge the social justice concerns of players, has decided its OK for players to kneel on the sidelines, and has even suggested that outcast quarterback Colin Kaepernick is employable.

Im OK with making the change if it makes Native Americans feel better. Theyve taken enough grief over the centuries from their European interlopers, even when you account for the fact they introduced tobacco and syphilis to their European tormentors.

But Washington will have to tread carefully on naming a new nickname (still under consideration as I write this) given our increased sensitivity to every real or imagined slight. Other mascots have not kept pace with the times, and you have to wonder how much pressure will be applied to college and professional teams with insensitive nicknames now that the Redskins have capitulated.

Stanford University started the trend in 1972 when it dropped the Indians nickname and eventually settled on Cardinal the color, not the bird. Out went Prince Lightfoot, to be replaced by the tree presumably a reference to El Palo Alto, the towering coastal redwood that looms over downtown Palo Alto and inspired the citys name.

University officials foolishly let the students decide on a new mascot, and they overwhelmingly chose Robber Barons, in honor of the universitys founder, Leland Stanford. (The school is actually named for his son, Leland Stanford Jr. University.) School officials were not amused.

But other schools and professional organizations chose not to follow the lead of Stanford in removing objectionable nicknames, somewhat surprising given the trend toward protecting people from hostile ideas, hurtful thoughts, and other things they dont like. Thus we find the Central Michigan Chippewas, Florida State Seminoles, Louisiana Lafayette Ragin Cajuns and San Diego State Aztecs still playing football at the Football Bowl Subdivision level.

There are several other teams with problematic nicknames among the 130 schools at the highest levels of the sport. Environmental warriors cant be happy with polluters like the Alabama Crimson Tide or the Tulane Green Wave, not to mention pests like the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.

People who get nervous around bad weather have a hard time warming up to the Iowa State Cyclones, Miami Hurricanes, Carolina Hurricanes, Tampa Bay Lightning, and the Tulsa Golden Hurricanes. Then there are the mellow folks who can do without the Illinois Fighting Illini and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

Speaking of religion, people who regularly ponder good and evil could find themselves wresting with the New Jersey Devils, Arizona State Sun Devils, Duke Blue Devils, and the Wake Forest Demon Deacons, not to mention truly bad people like the East Carolina Pirates, Texas Tech Red Raiders, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and (yes) Pittsburgh Steelers. (The Tampa Bay Rays used to be known as the Devil Rays until public opposition forced a name change. The team actually got better.)

Some people might object to the monopoly my fellow Catholics have on naming saints, which would make the New Orleans Saints, Los Angeles Angels, and San Diego Padres problematical.

Nicknames can bring up subjects that make people uncomfortable. I suspect the name of the Colorado Avalanche makes some operators of posh ski resorts in the Centennial State squirm when the touchy subject is raised. The Milwaukee Brewers are clearly sending the wrong message to the youth of America. Then theres the San Francisco 49ers, an era that still congers up bad memories for many of Californias Native Americans. The New York Giants and the San Francisco Giants are problematical in a time when were fighting obesity.

Some nicknames can just add more fuel to our politically-charged times. We have the New York Yankees and the Washington Capitals, as opposed to the Old Miss Rebels. For people who prefer to find common ground, theres the New England Patriots.

Then there are nicknames that make absolutely no sense. The Los Angeles Lakers? Theyre originally from Minnesota, the Land of 10,000 Lakes. The Utah Jazz? New Orleans. The Memphis Grizzlies? Vancouver, B.C.

If they are going to change the name of the Washington Redskins, what about the Cleveland Indians, Atlanta Braves, Kansas City Chiefs, Chicago Blackhawks and the Golden State Warriors?

I think professional and college teams should take a page from the recent trend of minor league baseball teams and just lighten up. I get a smile whenever I think about the Lansing Lugnuts, Savannah Sand Gnats, Montgomery Biscuits, Richmond Flying Squirrels, or Albuquerque Isotopes. My favorite college nickname is the UC-Santa Cruz Banana Slugs (Once a Slug, always a Slug.)

As Washington considers its new nickname, it might want to reflect on the teams poor performance during Snyders reign while at the same time honoring black pioneers in the days of segregated sports. To me, the Washington Generals is a natural.

George Boardman lives at Lake of the Pines. His column is published Tuesdays by The Union. Write to him at boredgeorgeman@gmail.com.

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George Boardman: What's in a nickname? Plenty in these times of hyper sensitivity - The Union of Grass Valley

Faculty and Staff Authors Compile Impressive List of Works – Middlebury College News and Events

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MIDDLEBURY, Vt. Middlebury College faculty and staff authors have again put forth a slate of books representing a diversity of interests and scholarship. Although the annual reception celebrating the authors could not take place this year, Jim Ralph, dean for faculty development and research,notes the importance of recognizing the dedication of those who have published books.

This years list of books, published in 2019, points to the remarkable imaginative and analytical powers of Middlebury Colleges faculty and staff, said Ralph.This listwith titles on topics ranging from history to geochemistry to pressing contemporary issuescould serve as a terrific starting point for readers seeking to expand their liberal education.

Books continue to be an important vehicle for conveying knowledge and stimulating insight on a topic, says Ralph. I know I speak for our community when I say how proud we are all of their achievements. The publication of these books also shines a light on the intellectual and creative vitality of our community.

Following is a list of books published by Middlebury faculty and staff in 2019:

Tara Affolter,Through the Fog: Towards Inclusive Anti-Racist Teaching.Charlotte, NC: IAPInformation Age Publishing, Inc, 2019.

Drawing from over 20 years of teaching experience in the U.S., ranging from prekindergarten to postgraduate, Affolters work illustrates personal, practical, and theoretical ways for teachers to grapple with the complexities of race and racism within their own schools and communities and develop as inclusive anti-racist teachers.

Matthew Dickerson,The Voices of Rivers: On Places Wild and Almost Wild. Boston, MA: Homebound Publications, 2019.

This work of creative narrative nonfiction interweaves elements of nature writing, personal narrative, outdoor writing, and environmental writing. In 2017, Dickerson was selected to be artist in residence at Glacier National Park (Montana) for the month of June, and then in 2018, he was selected to be artist in residence at Acadia National Park (Maine) for the month of May. This collection contains essays written in those times and places as well as essays set in some national forests, national parks, and state parks of Alaska from 2015 to 2018.

Elizabeth Endicott,Mongolia 19782017: Memoirs of a Part-Time Mongolist.Manchester Center, VT: Shires Press, 2019.

This memoir is a personal account of the authors 14 trips to Mongolia spanning the years 1978 to 2017. The book offers observations on the Mongolian way of life as it has evolved from the socialist period to a new post-socialist reality. Over 150 of the authors photographs document the social and cultural transformations in the Mongolian countryside and in Ulaanbaatar, the capital city.

Natalie Eppelsheimer,Roads Less Traveled: German Jewish Exile Experiences in Kenya, 19331947. Oxford: Peter Lang, 2019.

Drawing on archival sources in Kenya, Great Britain, Germany, and the U.S., as well as other literary, governmental, journalistic, and historical sources,Roads Less Traveledexamines the experiences of German Jews who managed to escape from Nazi Germany to the British colony of Kenya. This study explores the historical background of Jewish emigration to Kenya, analyzes first-person accounts of former refugees and descriptions of life in the colony, and pays special attention to the experiences of refugee children in Kenya.

Irina Feldman,P. Baker, F. Lagos, and R. Pareja(Eds).Latin American Marxisms in Context: Past and Present.Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2019.

The opposition to neoliberal development patterns in Latin America has gone beyond social-democratic reformism to a revival of Marxist theoretical perspectives and political practices in the beginning of the 21st century. This book provides an insight into the rich diversity of Latin American Marxism, historically and contemporarily. Given the global interest in the revival of radicalism in Latin America, it should appeal to non-Marxist as well as Marxist scholars with interests in topics from political economy to cultural theory.

Irina Feldmanand A. M. Lopez-Zapico(Eds).Resistiendo al imperio: Nuevas aproximaciones al antiamericanismo desde el siglo xx hasta la actualidad.Madrid, Spain: Slex Ediciones, 2019.

This volume revisits discourses and practices from Latin America, Spain, and the United States labeled as anti-Americanist, analyzing these political and cultural phenomena as practices of resistance in the face of imperial advances of the United States in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Felicia A. Grey,States and Non-participatory Memberships in the WTO.London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019.

This book examines non-participatory memberships, or why states choose not to use the benefits of international institutions to which they belong. To investigate this question, the author explores why states choose not to litigate within the World Trade Organizations Dispute Settlement Body (DSB). The research contributes to the literature on global governance and institutions generally, and of the WTO specifically. Additionally, the project includes comparative case analysis of WTO agreements and international disputes: China and Jamaica; Guatemala and Mexico; the United States and Mexico. This volume will interest policy makers, trade professionals, academics, and anyone who is interested in development studies.

Christian Keathley, Jason Mittell,Catherine Grant,The Videographic Essay: Practice and Pedagogy.Online:http://videographicessay.org, 2019.

This digital open-access book, adapted from a print version previously published in 2016 and revised for 2019, collects a series of writings, conversations, and examples of videographic criticism that emerged out of the ongoing Scholarship in Sound and Image summer workshops that have been offered at Middlebury since 2015. In recognition of the pedagogical work discussed in this online resource, Keathley and Mittell were awarded the Society for Cinema and Media Studies inaugural Innovative Pedagogy Award in 2020.

Gary Margolis,Time Inside.Peterborough, NH: Bauhan Publishing, 2019.

A book of poems.

Michelle McCauley,J. J. Dickinson, N. Schreiber Compo, R. N. Carol, B. L. Schwartz (Eds).Evidence-Based Investigative Interviewing: Applying Cognitive Principles.Routledge Press, 2019.

Evidence-Based Investigative Interviewingreviews the application of cognitive research to investigative interviewing, revealing how principles of cognition, memory, and social dynamics may increase the accuracy of eyewitness testimony. It provides evidence-based applications for investigators beyond the forensic domain in areas such as eyewitness identification, detecting deception, and interviewing children.

Bill McKibben,Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?Henry Holt and Co., 2019.

Falteris an account of our current peril on a hotter planet, and the way that rampant inequality, spurred by libertarian market fantasies, has left us in a particularly weak place to meet the crisis. It argues that nonviolent social movements might offer a way out. A New York Times bestseller, it was named by the Washington Post as one of the 10 best books of the year.

Laurie L. Patton,Who Owns Religion? Scholars and Their Publics in the Late Twentieth Century.Chicago:University of Chicago Press, 2019.

Who Owns Religion? focuses on a periodthe late 1980s through the 1990swhen scholars of religion were accused of scandalizing or denigrating the very communities they had imagined themselves honoring through their work. While controversies involving scholarly claims about religion are nothing new, this period saw an increase in vitriol that remains with us today. Authors of seemingly arcane studies on subjects like the origins of the idea of Mother Earth or the sexual dynamics of mysticism have been targets of hate mail and book-banning campaigns. As a result, scholars of religion have struggled to describe their own work to their various publics, and even to themselves.

Lana Dee Povitz,Stirrings: How Activist New Yorkers Ignited a Movement for Food Justice.Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2019.

In the late 20th century, government cutbacks, stagnating wages, AIDS, and gentrification pushed ever more people into poverty, and hunger reached levels unseen since the Depression. In response, New Yorkers set the stage for a nationwide food justice movement, organizing school lunch campaigns, establishing food co-ops, and lobbying city officials. Stirrings uses the political history of food advocacy organizations to explain why such groups focus almost exclusively on feeding hungry people rather than on addressing the root cause of that hungerpoverty.

Peter Crowley Ryan,Environmental and Low-Temperature Geochemistry, Second Edition. Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN: 978-1-119-56858-2, 2019.

Environmental and Low-Temperature Geochemistrypresents conceptual and quantitative principles of geochemistry in order to foster understanding of natural processes at and near the earths surface, as well as anthropogenic impacts and remediation strategies. It provides the reader with principles that allow prediction of concentration, speciation, mobility, and reactivity of elements and compounds in soils, waters, sediments, and air, drawing attention to both thermodynamic and kinetic controls. The scope includes atmosphere, terrestrial waters, marine waters, soils, sediments, and rocks in the shallow crust; the temporal scale is present to Precambrian, and the spatial scale is nanometers to local, regional, and global.

Paula Schwartz,Today Sardines Are Not for Sale:A Street Protest in Occupied Paris.

Oxford University Press, 2020. (This book was intended for release in late 2019, so it is included on this years list.)

Based on a rich documentary record, together with the oral testimony of surviving participants and witnesses, Today Sardines Are Not for Saleuses a microhistorical approach to probe multiple dimensions of a single short-lived event and its repercussions over time. The author shows how gender shaped an illegal public protest action under a French collaboration government and German occupation.

Yoko Ogawa.The Memory Police.Stephen Snyder, trans. New York: Pantheon, 2019.

The Memory Policeis a fable about the power of memory and the trauma of loss. The English-language edition was a 2019 National Book Award finalist, was named one of the New York Times's100 Notable Books of the Year, and is currently a finalist for the Booker International Prize.

Allison Stanger,Whistleblowers: Honesty in America from Washington to Trump.New Haven: Yale University Press, 2019.

Winner of the Association of American Publishers PROSE award in the category of Government, Policy, and Politics.

Max M. Ward,Thought Crime: Ideology and State Power in Interwar Japan. Durham: Duke University Press, 2019.

Thought Crimeexplores the development of the Japanese Peace Preservation Law (Chianijih) from its initial passage in 1925 to suppress communism and anticolonial nationalism to its expansion into an elaborate system to ideologically convert thousands of political criminals throughout the Japanese Empire in the 1930s.The book illuminates the complex processes through which the law articulated imperial ideology and how this ideology was transformed and disseminated through the laws application over its 20-year history.

Richard Wolfson,Essential University Physics, 4th edition. Pearson, 2019.

This is the fourth edition of the less is more calculus-based physics textbook thats designed to give students a concise, progressive text with a lively writing style and real-life applications; it costs less and weighs less than standard university physics texts.

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Faculty and Staff Authors Compile Impressive List of Works - Middlebury College News and Events

US Congress to question heads of tech giants on Wednesday – Yahoo News

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Washington (AFP) - A highly anticipated congressional hearing on anti-competitive practices, bringing together the heads of four US technology giants, has been rescheduled for noon (1600 GMT) Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee has announced.

The heads of Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple -- the world's biggest technology companies -- will be testifying at a time of growing complaints about their dominance and amid calls by some politicians and activists to break them up.

The hearing, originally set for Monday, was rescheduled. The committee did not offer a reason, but civil rights icon and long-time congressman John Lewis will be lying in state in the US Capitol on Monday and Tuesday.

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the four tech leaders -- Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Tim Cook (Apple), Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) and Sundar Pichai (Alphabet, the parent company of Google and YouTube) -- will be allowed to appear virtually if they wish.

It will be a first congressional appearance for Bezos, who also owns The Washington Post.

Pressure has been growing both from the right and the left -- and sometimes internally -- to do something about the overwhelming dominance of the internet platforms.

The Judiciary Committee has spent more than a year conducting a sweeping investigation into the four companies to determine whether they are guilty of any antitrust abuses and, if so, to consider possible remedies.

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US Congress to question heads of tech giants on Wednesday - Yahoo News

Star Wars: 5 Things Attack Of The Clones Got Right (& 5 It Got Wrong) – Screen Rant

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George Lucas divided the Star Wars fan base with The Phantom Menace. Contemporary children lapped it up, but adults who grew up with the original trilogy felt insulted by the campy tone. Lucas ignored his critics and boldly charged ahead with the prequel trilogy, following up Episode I with Attack of the Clones, which continued the journey toward the inevitable tragic downfall of Anakin Skywalker.

RELATED:Star Wars: 10 Greatest Moments In Attack Of The Clones, Ranked

Although Attack of the Clones is widely regarded to be the worst of the prequels, and was considered to be the worst Star Wars movie altogether until the sequel trilogy came along, it does have some redeeming value.

As with all the Star Wars prequels, Ewan McGregors portrayal of Obi-Wan Kenobi is infinitely charismatic. Instead of trying to emulate Alec Guinness, McGregor presented his own take on the character, while maintaining the dry charm that originally defined Guinness performance.

RELATED:Star Wars: 5 Things Ewan McGregor Brought (& 5 Things Alec Guinness Brought) To Obi-Wan Kenobi

In Attack of the Clones, Obi-Wan leads his own subplot as he investigates the creation of the Clone Army and stumbles into a widespread Sith conspiracy.

George Lucas is the first to admit that he doesnt write great dialogue particularly romantic dialogue and he even allowed Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman to rewrite their own lines on the set of Attack of the Clones. Still, their romantic scenes are pretty cringeworthy.

There have been defenses of this pointing out that Anakin was raised as a slave and therefore has limited social skills, but what still doesnt make sense is Padm falling head over heels for Anakin when the cringe factor never goes away.

As with any entry in the Skywalker saga, Attack of the Clones can be counted on for some breathtaking musical compositions courtesy of the great John Williams.

No matter how banal the romantic dialogue shared by Anakin and Padm is throughout the movie, Across the Stars, the Williams track that plays over their wedding in the films final moments (and when theyre being taken to their deaths in the Geonosian arena), captures the Shakespearean beauty of their forbidden, star-crossed love.

This is a problem that permeates throughout the prequel trilogy, but especially in Attack of the Clones. While The Phantom Menace was forced to use some practical techniques by technological restrictions and the computer-generated effects in Revenge of the Sith were sharper and more refined, Attack of the Clones is the worst of both worlds.

RELATED:Star Wars: Ranking All The Villains In The Prequel Trilogy

To say that Lucas overused primitive CGI throughout this movie would be an understatement. There isnt a single clone played by a physical actor in the entire movie; theyre all CG. Some scenes were entirely computer-generated.

George Lucas maintains that Jar Jar Binks is his favorite Star Wars character, but the fan base clearly wasnt as warm to him from his slapstick-laden debut in The Phantom Menace. Kids enjoyed his antics, but teenagers and adults rolled their eyes.

In Attack of the Clones, Jar Jar wasnt eradicated entirely, but Lucas did tone him down and figure out a manageable amount to keep him around that would stay on the side of lovable without veering into cringe territory.

Throughout Attack of the Clones, the slapstick comedy that Jar Jar brought to The Phantom Menace is instead given to C-3PO and R2-D2. After getting separated in a droid factory, Threepios head gets attached to a battle droids body and Artoo sets out to put him back together.

This subplot is filled with dreadful puns (This is such a drag, Im quite beside myself, etc.) and cringeworthy gags that belong in a cartoon.

Ben Burtt is the sound design genius who gave us the hum of a lightsaber, the crack of Indiana Jones whip, and the synthetic, yet sympathetic voice of WALL-E. On top of his usual iconic sound effects, like the voice of R2-D2, Burtt added some new mesmerizing sounds to the library in Attack of the Clones, like Obi-Wans seismic charge.

In addition to the prequels sound design, Burtt worked as an editor on the films. He worked with co-editors on The Phantom Menace and Revenge of the Sith, but tackled editing duties on Attack of the Clones solo.

The mystery behind the cloning operation on Kamino ended up being dropped from Revenge of the Sith, because Lucas realized he bit off more than he could chew in Attack of the Clones.

The movie has too many villains, too. There was no reason for Jango Fett to outsource the assassination of Padm to Zam Wesell, who in turn outsourced it to a droid, after Nute Gunray outsourced it to Fett. Its the only prequel for which Lucas recruited a co-writer to help figure out the plot; he shouldve seen that as a sign that it was getting too complicated.

The plot threads of Attack of the Clones all converge in a spectacular final battle in which Star Wars fans get everything but the kitchen sink in their favorite galaxy far, far away. Obi-Wan reunites with Anakin and Padm as theyre shackled up in a gladiatorial arena and fed to some monsters for the Geonosians amusement.

RELATED:10 Greatest Battle Sequences In The Star Wars Saga

From there, the entire Jedi Order takes on the Separatists entire droid army, Yoda shows up with the Republics Clone Army, and Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Yoda confront Count Dooku.

Although he would eventually settle into the role of Anakin Skywalker with more theatrical flair in Revenge of the Sith, Hayden Christensens acting in Attack of the Clones was depressingly wooden.

To be fair to him, I dont like sand, is a difficult line to bring nuance to, but Christensen didnt do anything to elevate Lucas dialogue like his co-stars Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, and Samuel L. Jackson did.

NEXT:Star Wars: 5 Things The Prequel Trilogy Did Wrong (& 5 It Did Right)

Next Harry Potter: The Death Eaters, Ranked By Likability

Ben Sherlock is a writer, filmmaker, and comedian. In addition to writing for Screen Rant and CBR, covering a wide range of topics from Spider-Man to Scorsese, Ben directs independent films and takes to the stage with his standup material. He's currently in pre-production on his feature directorial debut (and has been for a while, because filmmaking is expensive). Previously, he wrote for Taste of Cinema and BabbleTop.

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Star Wars: 5 Things Attack Of The Clones Got Right (& 5 It Got Wrong) - Screen Rant

Blackjack Spooking – What Is the Legality of Blackjack Spooking – BestUSCasinos.org

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Blackjack is the most popular game among advantage players. It can be beaten through a variety of ways, including card counting, shuffle tracking, ace sequencing, and hole carding.

The casino will throw out any players whom they catch successfully using any of these techniques. However, each of these methods is at least legal and wont get one sent to jail.

Other strategies for beating blackjack are more questionable. Spooking, for example, falls into the murky category.

Unlike marking cards or colluding with the dealer, spooking doesnt come off as being blatantly illegal. Ill discuss more on this technique along with if its ultimately legal to use in blackjack.

In a real money blackjack game, the dealer receives two cardsone up card and one face-down cardto start each round. You can use the up card in combination with your cards to determine whether to hit, stand, split, or double down.

Youre not supposed to know the value of the dealers face-down card (a.k.a. hole card). Therefore, youre dealing with incomplete information when making decisions.

Spooking Is a method of finding out the dealers hole card so that you have more information to act on. It involves two people, including one who sits at a table and plays hands, and another who tries seeing the face-down cards value.

The latter person stands off to the side of the game, in a position where they can better spot the dealers face-down card. They use hand signals or gestures to relay the information to the gambler.

Spooking can also involve a dealer who colludes with a gambler. The croupier must peek for the hole card value whenever they have an ace or 10 up card.

They can make an indiscreet gesture to let the player know their hole card. Dealer-player collusion is obviously illegal, so Ill avoid discussing it throughout the rest of the post.

Spooking bears many similarities to hole carding. The latter also involves trying to figure out the dealers hole card.

However, here are the key differences with hole carding:

Simply put, hole carders always sit and play a blackjack game. They dont need an accomplice who watches the dealer from afar, because they look for the hole card values themselves.

Spooking might sound like an easy way to make money. You just need somebody who can sit stand in a way that they can see the dealers hole cards, right?

Actually, spookers must not only be good at seeing the face-down card but also evading detection. They need to be extremely discreet about looking at the hole cards and also when signaling the player.

Casino surveillance is very adept at catching skilled gamblers. They have no trouble spotting transparent hand signals and obvious attempts to see cards.

Those who dont practice and work out infallible techniques beforehand risk being discovered. Therefore, any good blackjack team has to hone their skills before hitting the casino.

The person who is monitoring the dealer especially must be on top of their game. They should be adept at seeing the hole card from afar and properly relaying the value without drawing attention to themselves.

In answer to the original question posed at the start, no, spooking is not legal. Casinos have the right to kick you out and also prosecute you afterward.

Now, you may wonder why hole carding is legal and spooking isnt. The answer lies in where the participants are located.

All hole carding takes place at the table. Gamblers rely on their own skills and observations to figure out the hole card and make money.

Spooking, meanwhile, mainly relies on somebody whos not even at the blackjack table. Instead, the person watching the dealer is considered a cheater.

Youre not going to spend years in prison as a first-time offender who gets busted for spooking. However, youll definitely face legal repercussions of some kind when caught.

Spooking certainly isnt desirable from a legal standpoint. Therefore, you might wonder why one doesnt just opt for a safer way of beating blackjack.

I definitely suggest going to the legal route if you want to win profits in the casino. But spooking does have its merits when compared to other strategies.

You do need skill to properly pull off this technique. However, you dont have to be as skilled as, say, a hole carder or shuffle tracker.

The latter pursuits involve putting countless hours into winning. Spooking also requires some preparation and practice, but it doesnt demand the same amount of dedication.

Moreover, the watcher is the only person who really needs to be skilled. The player at the table, meanwhile, just needs to read the signals or gestures and act accordingly.

Spooking is also a very successful technique when properly pulled off. You dont have to wait for a dealer who flashes their cards. You just need somebody who can spot the dealers hole card when they check for a natural blackjack or pluck the card from the shoe.

Again, spooking is an extremely risky technique that could put you behind bars for a short while. But its also fruitful and relatively easy to manage when compared to more complicated strategies.

You likely arent thrilled about risking prosecution to beat blackjack. Therefore, you might consider the following legal advantage gambling methods instead.

Card counting is by far the most popular way to beat the casino. Gamblers have been using this strategy for decades to win profits.

It involves watching each card as it comes out of the shoe and assigning a point value to it. Here are the card groups along with their associated point values:

The goal is to determine when theres a positive count and increase your bets at this point. You also benefit more when the count is positive later in the shoe.

With more deck penetration, you can have more confidence in your accounts. After all, a +3 count is more trustworthy 75% of the way through the shoe versus just 10%.

Many different card counting systems exist. But you should definitely start out with the simple and reliable Hi-Lo, which is explained here.

Shuffle tracking begins with card counting. You count cards until the dealer stops the game to shuffle.

The point of card counting in this situation is to determine which part of the shoedealt or undealt portionfeatures a positive count:

Heres an example:

Shuffle tracking brings an added element to card counting by calling on you to visually track favorable card piles. With enough skill, you can track the favorable clumps and bet more when these slugs are dealt.

This strategy has an advantage over card counting, because its harder to detect by pit bosses.

I briefly covered hole carding earlier, but Ill go over it again in this section. This technique involves trying to see the dealers hole card.

The biggest step toward successful hole carding involves finding a dealer that accidentally flashes their face-down cards. These dealers are rare and usually only show hole cards due to a lack of experience and/or skill.

After finding such a croupier, you need to sit in a way that allows you to see the dealers hole card. Here are the seats you would take in a blackjack game:

Basically, you just need to be where the croupier would logically flash their hole card. For example, theyre more likely to show it to third base when theyre left-handed.

You also need to be discreet when looking at the dealers hole card. This matter involves slouching so that youre lower to the table without making it obvious what youre trying to do.

Unlike the advantage play methods covered here, spooking isnt legal. Its an underhanded technique that relies on somebody whos not even at the table.

One might think that theyre being clever when looking at the dealers hole cards from a distance. But theyre actually breaking gaming laws in any jurisdiction.

Spooking will still remain a popular strategy to beat the casinos thanks to its ease of use and success rate. However, it also requires taking a considerable degree of legal risk.

Assuming you want to avoid being busted for cheating, you should use a legal advantage gambling strategy. Enough of the latter exists to where you dont need to cheat.

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Blackjack Spooking - What Is the Legality of Blackjack Spooking - BestUSCasinos.org